Stpry mode EC is going to be more accessible finally? So now I won't have people tell me that my full WH Shadowtank is "less than yseless" as I have been told too many times? I can finally start getting the damn Campaign together in that case.

This whole gear separation crap has pissed me off because NOBODY wants to take a player through any operation (normal mode included) who is wearing all pvp gear. If 1.4 means my War Hero equipped Shadow can finally get the pve gear she needs then all I have to say is...WHAT THE KRIFFING HELL TOOK SO LONG?!?!?!

Seriously, this gear separation has got to go. Nine months I have been playing this game and have done one, ONE, operation on eight characters because people will not take me due to my gear. That's discrimination in my book. So if I can run EC SM in my WH gear then I am going to be happy as hell.

If you want to play PvE so bad, get PvE gear. It's really not that hard. You can do SM ops and HM flashpoints through the group finder and gear up in Columi and then start doing HM ops for Rakata gear.

Also, while doing these through the group finder, you will be getting Black Hole commendations (you can also get 6 Black Hole commendations doing the weekly in the Black Hole) and you can use those to purchase Black Hole gear.

Gearing up a level 50 in PvE gear is NOT difficult if you're not lazy.

Story Mode Explosive Conflict and Terror from Beyond are balanced for players in Columi gear, but we currently have no way to enforce or communicate the recommended power level. This could cause frustration for players who are undergeared, and would bog down the process of getting into the content, which is contrary to the purpose of the tool.

You know there are other people that play this game that have the gear required for these Operations right? Why do they get punished and ignored by Bioware again and again?

Does it seriously not occur to you people that maybe geared players want to use the Group Finder also?
Sometimes Guilds are short 1, 2 or 3 people on a raid night, but due to the ignorant stance Bioware takes on this 'tool' they are forced to spam chat channels to fill these raid spots instead of just using Group Finder. So effectively, there might as well be no Group Finder tool.

Honestly, as a player I think these things should be obvious to you and the company you represent Allison.

Other posts mention adding a way to calculate gear score or some such but obviously that's more work for you guys, who can barely keep up as it is. All you have to do is add a prompt or warning of the difficulty of Explosive Conflict or Terror From Beyond when a player ques for it.

"Warning: it is not recommended to attempt this Operation without acquiring gear from Karagga's Palace / Eternity Vault"

Or something to that effect. It's an easy yet effective way to tell someone they need to be prepared first.

Generally one would assume that if a player ques for a raid and is nowhere near the appropriate skill or gear requirement, they find themselves to be ineffective and resolve to try again later after clearing easier content. One could even assume that the fact they even tried to do Higher End content before doing Lower End content is a result of the game not communicating proper progression to said players.

There is no excuse good enough for not having every Operation and every available difficulty in group finder. Having players attempt content and be frustrated with it is much better than having them be frustrated by not being able to attempt it all due to being unable to find a group for it.

IN SUMMARY

Not being able to find a group for all of the available Operations via Group Finder would bog down the process of getting into the content, which is contrary to the purpose of the tool.

Gear score is not the best options imo .. Skilled player who are familiar with the mechanics, regardless of whether its Ops or FPs, are able to clear content in lower grade gear. Also what if you'd like to have a fresh 50 in the group for the purpose of gearing up ?

Another point I'd like to make is that you're getting RANDOM people through the LFG tool -> example Lost Island is the shortest and quickest FP to run through these days in a reasonable group, however through the LFG tool you get people in "hybrid" specs, recruit gear, fake tanks, fake healers ... people who have no idea what they're doing etc ... basically RANDOM people. Would you really want to run EC HM for example with a "hybrid" healer in recruit gear ? Yes you could implement a gear check but that raises an entire set of different issues.

On top of that in Europe you also have to consider that a lot of people don't actually speak English at ALL. And practically all "completely" random KP SM groups for example fail on the fabricator as they just can't communicate what needs to be done!

"Spamming" /1 is the best way to pug !

LFG tool is only useful for extremely easy content which can be cleared with a "worst case scenario" group -> that is no gear and a complete lack of understanding of the mechanics.

I don't know if this would work but if it's too complicated for the system to check gear, how about checking player logs?

What i mean by this is that the Group Finder forces natural progression by not making every choice available from the start to a fresh 50. Tier 2 of HM'es and Ops'es won't be available until you've successfully cleared the first tier, or in the event of HM FP'es a certain amount of tier 1 HM'es (doesnt have to be every individual FP). It will not guarantee that the players are geared but it will atleast increase the chance that they are.

Another thing, is it really that hard to implement a voice channel for operations? Personally I've never really felt the need for it, although it does speed some things up the first time you are trying to beat something, but other people in GF more or less persist on that everyone joins vent/TS/Mumble/etc. It always takes forever for someone to pull out the info and even longer for people to download the apps and join. For those who don't want to download the app or simply cant be bothered with running a second program there's always the risk that some *** will vote to kick. It would have been so much easier with a voice channel in the game. I'm not an avid MMO'er so I'm not sure if MMO'es use this system at all.

I asked Jesse Sky (Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer) about when players can expect to see Terror from Beyond and Explosive Conflict in the Group Finder. He said it's definitely something we're planning to do, but had some information about why they aren't in quite yet:

Story Mode Explosive Conflict and Terror from Beyond are balanced for players in Columi gear, but we currently have no way to enforce or communicate the recommended power level. This could cause frustration for players who are undergeared, and would bog down the process of getting into the content, which is contrary to the purpose of the tool. Introducing either Op into the Group Finder would also mean rotating out Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace, so we want to make sure the timing and the rewards are right before we do this.

Why would adding more options, require the removal of existing options? There's no reason that a LFG tool can't encompass ALL the content in the game.. segregate it by drop down according to Tier...but don't remove content from the tool

Mal: Well look at this, appears we got here just in the nick of time. What does that make us?
Zoe: Big Damn Heroes, Sir.
Mal: Ain't we just.

I asked Jesse Sky (Lead Flashpoints and Operations Designer) about when players can expect to see Terror from Beyond and Explosive Conflict in the Group Finder. He said it's definitely something we're planning to do, but had some information about why they aren't in quite yet:

Story Mode Explosive Conflict and Terror from Beyond are balanced for players in Columi gear, but we currently have no way to enforce or communicate the recommended power level. This could cause frustration for players who are undergeared, and would bog down the process of getting into the content, which is contrary to the purpose of the tool. Introducing either Op into the Group Finder would also mean rotating out Eternity Vault and Karagga's Palace, so we want to make sure the timing and the rewards are right before we do this.

Why does that mean EV/KP have to be rotated out? Couldn't you just bump it up to HM EV and KP to put it on par with SM EC and TFB or even just add another slot to GF window like you did with LI being by itself?

why i asked the question in the first place is because i`m on 3 shift and cant find a guild in which i can fit in without missing ops .so the only way i get to see new ops is by group finder which seems to be pointless until you have a way of doing it. i thought that sm was for group finder that why it easy ?.i also know i can make a pug but due to my poor leadership skills and not knowing the fights first alway puts me off doing that.

Seriously, this gear separation has got to go. Nine months I have been playing this game and have done one, ONE, operation on eight characters because people will not take me due to my gear. That's discrimination in my book. So if I can run EC SM in my WH gear then I am going to be happy as hell.

Sorry, but people get raged at for wearing PVE gear in PVP/WZs all the time. Same difference. You shouldn't be able to wear WH gear into PVE and PVE gear shouldn't be worn in PVP. Just sayin'.

Just like a PVP relic should not be BIS for a PVE raider.

I'm personally tired of Bioware developing easier content for people that don't wanna work for it. Centurion, Champion, Battlemaster gear for one example, and now Black Hole tokens are given for sneezing. It's supposed to be an accomplishment not something that's handed to you by doing literally nothing. It's progression for a reason. Do the HM FPs and other OPs to get the appropriate gear.

The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.

The statements and opinions expressed on these websites are solely those of their respective authors and do not necessarily reflect the views, nor are they endorsed by Bioware, LucasArts, and its licensors do not guarantee the accuracy of, and are in no way responsible for any content on these websites.